In the past five to ten years, the technique of chirped pulse amplification has been used to develop compact, high peak power laser systems utilizing amplifying media such as Nd: glass, Ti: sapphire, and alexandrite. These systems are capable of generating very high intensity, on the order of 10.sup.18 to 10.sup.21 watts per square centimeter. In an ideal case, all of the energy is contained in a relatively short main pulse for deposition onto a target. However, in the real world the pulse is not ideal. The chirped non-linearities associated with chirped pulse amplification (CPA) contribute to wings forming what is analogous to a pedestal surrounding the main laser pulse. This results in low peak to background intensity contrast on the order of 1,000 to 1. Accordingly, it is desirable to improve the power contrast ratio of these laser systems. The peak to background intensity contrast is typically determined in the field by dividing peak intensity by background intensity where the peak value is the highest value of intensity of the pulse and the background intensity is the next largest intensity value of the pulse. A typical CPA system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,235,606 which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.